


Gift

by SQ (proteinscollide)



Category: Dragonlance - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-03-22
Updated: 2003-03-22
Packaged: 2017-10-14 23:55:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/154846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/proteinscollide/pseuds/SQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tanis offers Raistlin a gift he does not want to receive, and Raistlin asks for that which Tanis may not wish to lose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gift

**Author's Note:**

> For Lasair.

“Your love, Tanis?” Hearing Tanis’ earnest declaration, Raistlin gave a sneering laugh, his frail body shaking.

“What is your love worth to me? You loved my sister and look where that got the two of you, years apart and never to be, your noble ideals between. Kit was smart to run from you and serve her ambition instead. And you love that elf-maiden - oh, I know you do, it’s in your every tortured polite move around her - but what good will your love do, when I can see you wither even now, yet she lives on beautiful and ageless?”

“So don’t offer your love to me. I have no use for it.”

As the mage paused to draw breath, shallow yet shuddering, Tanis willed himself to remain calm in the face of the mage’s cruel and deliberate words. His hands folded into fists by his side, but he made no move to use violence on the other man, answered the taunts truthfully.

“No, I don’t suppose you do. You know nothing of love, Raistlin, though you have taken all you can from your twin - ”

“Do not speak of Caramon.” Raistlin broke in, gold eyes darkening, hint of danger in his voice. “After all, what would you understand of family ties, half-elf?”

In the terrible silence that followed, Tanis pushed away from the dead wood they sat on side by side, stung by the malice of his companion. He found himself held back, one ghostly gold hand on his arm, no strength behind the gesture; and Tanis returned to his place. He reached out for the angles of Raistlin’s face with uncertain fingers. The mage turned to face him, continued to regard him with a narrowed gaze, contempt in those dark hourglasses, but made no move to draw away. Tanis grasped Raistlin closer, one large hand cupping his chin.

“Then what would you have me give?” he asked, urgent and low. “What do you want of me, Raistlin? I have never been able to tell with you.”

For a moment Raistlin held still, and the lines around his eyes softened. Dropping his gaze, he sighed, a harsh sound that threatened to choke him. Tanis started in worry but froze as Raistlin pushed him away, with a commanding “No!” that was remarkably strong.

“I will help myself!” he snarled, one hand braced against Tanis’ chest. It was feverish, still burning through the coarse wool of his shirt. Raistlin’s sharp nails began to dig into flesh as cough after cough wracked his thin frame. Tanis was torn; wanting to give Raistlin time to recover, keep his dignity, but crushed as he watched him suffer. As the young mage’s breath continued short and wheezing, he gave in, an unusual show of weakness, and held onto Tanis’ sturdy body for support. Knowing it would be a mistake, Tanis bent his head anyway and kissed Raistlin gently on the temple. He felt the bone of skull hard under his tongue, a metallic taste to match the inhuman sheen he knew covered his lover’s skin.

Raistlin wrenched himself away then, settling just out of Tanis’ reach. Watching warily with glittering eyes, his body still tense, his lips began to curl into a sardonic smile as he studied the desire and care written on Tanis’ face.

“One day you will give me what I want,” he whispered, face suddenly shadowed as a cloud drifted to cover the moon. “One day, _Tanthalas_ , lover.” He repeated it, and they both heard the promise contained within those few words, a telling of the future even though Raistlin protested time and time again that he had no such sight.

Tanis shivered. He knew Raistlin was mocking him, that dangerous tongue twisting slyly around his Elven name, accent smooth from the thin-lipped mouth. Tanis cursed himself once more in his mind for knowing nothing behind that enigmatic sneer, meticulous mind, for continuing in this relationship where the line between friendship and danger wavered in existence. And he wondered, with more than a glint of fear - he, who had faced greater battles, stronger men - what it was that Raistlin saw him giving for this time together, if it was truly something he would wish to lose.

END


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